I managed to walk to the Co-op today during a brief, mostly dry window of opportunity, but now it's turned colder, it's not just rain that's falling.Outside my windowhail patters on the cold ground.When will it be spring?At least it's not quite as wet here as it is in Eglwyswrw, though I don't think we're far behind. In case anyone thinks I've been overdoing the moaning about the rain, see what we've had to put up with?

I keep wondering when we're going to get serious about moving rainfall from places of surplus to places of scarcity. Not the storms, mind you, but ways of addressing flood control planning that strategize where to put the water. If we can contemplate massive oil pipelines, why not massive water pipelines?

The increased flooding is largely a *consequence* of rushing water around artificially. The industry is (rightly IMO) trying to find ways to keep water where it fell, to either percolate down or evaporate up, instead of zipping sideways.

One of the problems is that if you tell people you're arranging to keep water in the neighbourhood, they ask why, and you have to admit it's to help other people miles away. Uproar ensues.

Given the journal context, I should probably have given some indication that I was thinking more of my own local situation than the one Helen was describing. (She knows I live in California, but there's no reason all her other LJ friends would know that!)

So I was thinking in terms of "I wonder what it would take to divert Mississippi Valley surplus to the California Central Valley?" As you note, we aren't talking trivial costs. On the other hand, there are costs from the status quo as well.

We already do that so some extent in the UK. Birmingham and Liverpool get their water from reservoirs in Wales. Also, there is a flood control system on the River Dee that holds flood water back in Bala Lake and then releases it more slowly to help prevent flooding on the lower land nearer where it reaches the sea.

However, we don't really have problems with drought anywhere in the UK so it's more a case of moving water from areas of low population to areas of high population. Regarding your situation, I don't know enough about US geography and topology to know where you could pipe water from. But it's certainly technically possible. The problem is no doubt one of funding the project as water probably isn't as valuable as oil. Though I suppose it could be in the future?

The main problem is that any useful project would need to tap into the Mississippi drainage basin, since the Colorado is already siphoned off enough that the river only intermittently makes it to the sea. And a project to transport excess Mississippi-drainage floodwater all the way past the Rockies and the Sierras to the west would be daunting.

Here the temperatures have risen again and all the snow has melted away. I am happy that I put my bike to inspection last week, when I could not use it anyway!I still have 3 days off but K. Went to work today.